A local Catholic I know sent me a photo of his reply to the fundraising mailing he received from the Diocese of Dallas for the Bishop’s Annual Appeal. I think you can sense he’s rather nonplussed over Bishop Farrell’s diatribe against a great portion of the faithful in his very strong pro-gun control rant from last week.

His response is, I think, not just apropos, but vital: Not. One. Dime.:

Identity deleted, obviously.

Whether the NRA or some other, not-so-compromised Catholic entity, I’ve got to agree with this response. On the heels of an unprecedented $125 million fundraising push, including some of the steepest assessments I’ve ever heard of (well nigh 50% of all monies donated remain with the diocese, even though parishes are required to meet certain mandated targets – they see barely half that money back), I think it a very appropriate message to simply say “no thanks.” You can keep your political rants, and I’ll keep my money, thank you very much.

In fact, I’ve long argued that about the only ability the laity have to influence the Church, locally and at large, is the power of the purse. The laity’s function in the modern, corporatist Church is basically as a source of funding. Were that funding to be denied, and were it clearly communicated that the denial was based on opposition to the continued disastrous direction of the Church, perhaps some change might be effected.

Admittedly, it’s a bit of a long shot, but aside from our constant recourse to prayer and penance, it’s about the only shot we have.

Lol. I thought of sending a letter to diocese of Austin that I would donate when they would offer the TLM closer to where I live. I decided against it because they might just do away with the TLM in Austin and Waco. I didn’t want to ruin it for other people.

My explanation will be that I can’t support anyone who wants to deprive me of my personal safety.

We can repair quite a few things wrong with the Church on our own, like good catechesis for nonsense from the pulpit, not attending or allowing our kids to attend questionable programs, homeschooling, etc., but we can’t fix dead.

And while I worry that if we don’t meet our assessment, there will be repercussions, I thnk they would be preferable to giving the diocese any money directly.

Repercussions?!? Isn’t that the desired outcome? You really want business as usual, or do you want a change to a moral distribution of donations? Other than supporting as you see fit in your individual case, frankly, repercussions are none of your affair, not your concern. That is between the bishop and the priest. You either give to the bishop unguardedly and fully trust him to do what is right with the money… or if you don’t trust that will happen, you have the obligation NOT to give. It’s not for you to project out what maybe could happen.

It is regrettable that the office of the Bishop chose to disparage the mentality of those that might be inclined to carry openly or that might support the legislation as having a “cowboy” mentality. In this state as well as others, there are observant Catholics that are real or part-time cowboys, that truly work livestock, often with pride and joy. The figure of speech was not appropriate and certainly offensive to some even if true to a very limited extent. For the record, I would not be in favor of members of my parish that might not be active law enforcement personnel to carry openly in the church facilities. Yet, it might prove foolish to make issue of, to castigate, chastise, or prosecute would be concealed carriers that have caused no harm, have meant no harm, and might ultimately be the last line of defense against would be jihadists or other hateful mass killer types. A jihadist has already been reported to have made an appearance in an East Texas Baptist church. We are a universal church. Our brethren in faith are being slaughtered and persecuted in many parts of the world, often in their own sanctuaries. The evidence is clear that the Islamic Jihad is present and active in the US. If any citizen, parishioner, priest or otherwise has a disdain for the use of force to protect the innocent, they should refrain from calling the police, because ultimately that is what the police rely upon “force”.